Tata Technologies, a global engineering services provider, has announced a close association with NIO China, a leading new-generation electric car company, in the complete product development process of NIO’s range of electric vehicles. The association between the two companies commenced with collaborative engineering for NIO’s first electric all-aluminum vehicle, the ES8, which NIO intends to be their first product positioned in the Chinese electric vehicles mass market.
Talking about this association, Mr. Warren Harris, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer for Tata Technologies, said, “ES8 is an important milestone for the automotive industry. The 7-seater high-performance electric SUV is a mobile living space on wheels. It has been a privilege for Tata Technologies to partner with NIO on this breakthrough product. Our close working relationship in the areas of Lightweighting, Connected Vehicles and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a great example of the type of partnerships that will define the future automotive ecosystem. Moreover, our ability to serve NIO through the capabilities that we have in China, India, UK and USA is a testament to the investment we have made in our global capabilities. We look forward to our partnership with NIO developing at scale.”
Mr. Roger Malkusson, Vice President, Vehicle Engineering for NIO, recognized Tata Technologies’ contribution, and said, “We have an ambitious goal of delivering a new premium user experience with electric vehicles that will set benchmarks globally and Tata Technologies is our partner of choice to help achieve this. They were able to pool in experts and teams from China, India, UK and Romania to work together with the NIO engineering team to deliver the final product which adhered to the highest standards in safety and finesse. The first finished product, ES8, is an all-aluminum SUV that broke lightweight index benchmarks and was delivered in record time from a blank page to a validation vehicle in world class duration.”
The two companies initiated their association in mid-2015, very close to NIO’s inception as an ambitious next-gen EV startup. Since then, Tata Technologies has engaged with NIO to drive major engineering aspects related to the development of ES8, such as Body Structures, Closures & Exteriors, Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, PLM, and Off-car Connectivity. Tata Technologies, in this strategic association with NIO, utilized its globally distributed execution model and extended its proven expertise in out-of-the-box engineering processes.
With the goal of creating a product-development process that would establish an industry benchmark, NIO and Tata Technologies have worked on a range of concepts on weight optimization using advanced materials. The team has worked on creating a process that would pioneer the way for more advanced material based vehicles in China. The result of implementing such expertise is that the ES8 is currently achieving Body Weight Efficiency targets better than the EuroCarBody Conference best.
The association has also achieved significant technological milestones in the PLM domain. The team successfully led and implemented the 3DEXPERIENCE® 2016x (Dassault Systèmes) solution. It was delivered by Tata Technologies’ global talent and is another first in the next-gen EV Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) landscape, enabling engineers to accelerate the product development lifecycle through concurrent engineering.
The electric vehicle and connected car industries are on the cusp of making intelligent transportation dreams a reality. While there has been a global increase in the demand of technologically-enhanced electric vehicle components like embedded infotainment systems, intelligent transportation systems, etc., the South and East Asia markets are the best bet for the development and manufacturing of smart cars.